December 2016
After a month in our little room the walls were closing in and as Warren was going home for a couple of weeks in the beginning of Dec, Morg and I decided to make our way down to Koh Lipe (a Thai island about 30 m west of Langkawi) to stay with Milly Jane and Tricky on their catamaran Ananda. It’s always a welcome break for both family’s to have the kids entertain each other while the Mums can get some free time.
Koh Lipe
Warren drove us across to Trang, on the south coast of mainland Thailand where we stayed a night in a cute little flashpackers hotel. Exceptionally more flasher than a backpackers. From there Morg and I caught a mini bus and ferry down to Koh Lipe and were met on the beach by Jane and Milly. It was great to be back on the water and swimming in clear water again.
Sunset Bay where we anchored
Finally Morg and I got to see Nemo in his habitat- after months of snorkelling through Indonesia we saw just about every species of fish there is but couldn’t find the elusive clown fish. They are really inquisitive, coming out of their anemones to have a good gander at you then darting back in to hide themselves. Morg also spent some time sailing around in Anandas sailing dinghy under the tutorage of Tricky. He loved it and now we are on the lookout for a sailing dinghy. Because we just don’t have enough boats.
Tricky, Jane and some old bird
I celebrated a big birthday in Koh Lipe, nice feeling I don’t have to throw a big party or anything as you would at home. There’s a great little café on Sunset Beach where we were anchored, owned by Portugese/Spanish couple, so I asked them to cook us a paella for this auspicious occasion.
Doesn’t look big but it was huge
It was perfect, we all went ashore and sat in the banana chairs down at the waters edge sipping Mojito’s, then cracked a bottle of bubbly, meanwhile kids were entertaining themselves. They set a nice table on the balcony for us and we had a delicious meal, red wine and an amazing dessert he prepared for us. Couldn’t have wished for anything better. Beats a big boozy party by a mile, and I quite like big boozy parties. Only thing missing was Warren of course.
After a week in Koh Lipe we headed back across to Rebak in Malaysia as Tricky had injured his knee and wanted it looked at asap. Luckily we had our passports with us, so we cleared out of Thailand and sailed the 30 miles back to Malaysia. It was the usual here, morning coffees and shopping over at Langkawi followed by a swim at the resort in the afternoons. Rebaks nice for a while, but this visit found me Rebakked out and with no real desire to return here. It felt way to familiar- which is nice but I felt myself yearning for different destinations. After a week here we said our farewells and flew back to Phuket and the job of recommissioning Mustang Sally for Christmas.